All areas, streets and buildings have already been assigned a number and what remains to be done is to simply put up signs.
During the first phase, signs have already been put on some 98,000 buildings, including many in Doha, a senior civic official said.
The second phase has begun and will cover the remaining buildings in the country, including residential, commercial and other ones.
The official in charge of the project told The Peninsula that numbers were being assigned to each building or villa, and even to apartments in buildings in each residential complex.
Not a single residential or commercial unit, including those in an independent building, like office space or a production facility, will be without a number.
The project, however, doesn’t discard the names of areas (called zones) and streets, said Amer Mohammed Al Humaidi, head of planning and projects at the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning. “The names have historical significance so they can’t be done away with,” he said.
The numbering project, called ‘Qatar Area Referencing System’ (QARS), has been launched by the Centre for Geographic Information System, which is located in Al Dafna and is under the civic ministry.
“This is the second and the last phase of the QARS we are undertaking. Putting up sign displays in the remaining buildings in the country will be covered in this phase,” Al Humaidi said.
Since all buildings, streets and zones have already been numbered and what remains is putting up signs, the Centre has developed an app called ‘Al Murshid’ that can be downloaded on iPads and iPhones.
“We have even named areas, streets and buildings that will come up in future.”
“Just enter the number of a building and zone and street numbers and a satellite map will guide you to that building,” said Al Humaidi of the app.
He showed how the system, which is like GPS (ground positioning system), works. It tells you where you currently are and guides you to navigate the roads and reach a particular area, street or building anywhere in the country.
Al Murshid comes in handy for ambulance drivers, cabbies, delivery boys from eateries, and even motorists looking for locations. “A lot of people have begun using our app,” said Al Humaidi.
Public representative body Central Municipal Council (CMC), meanwhile, said it had urged the government to display the names of areas in Arabic and English at entry and exit points, with arrows indicating directions in a prominent way.
The CMC says currently nobody knows where an area begins and where it ends, which creates confusion and makes it difficult for people to locate or pinpoint addresses, particularly of residential buildings that are located in remote areas, along internal streets and in not-so-prominent places.
According to the CMC’s vice-chairman, Jassem Al Malki, the process of naming zones and streets began more than three decades ago, in the 1980s. “We started it with Doha Jadeeda and the process is still going on. It hasn’t ended.”
The CMC has two members on the naming committee at the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, he told this newspaper.
“The names for streets and zones as well as for open grounds are proposed by the ministerial committee to the civic minister. Before that the CMC debates the issue at length,” Al Malki said. “Then, names are also suggested by higher-ups.”
There are several areas and streets in Doha as well as in its suburbs that have so far no names and numbers.
“There is a whole area behind the Grand Mosque (Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdul Wahab) and streets therein that are nameless and numberless.”
The same is true of an area near Al Gharrafa Sports Club. Streets have no names here. “There are several such areas and streets in Doha alone.”
Some streets have names but no number, while there are some that have numbers but no name, said the CMC vice-chairman.
Then, some streets have funny names and they must be changed. “Like there is one Shara Al Azhaar (Flowers Street)…There are no flowers there, so why have such a name?”
THE PENINSULA
